A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words (Glass Plate Negative Conservation)

Posted on 1 April 2020 by Henry Rincavage

I’ve always been fascinated with the process of developing negatives and film photography, so when I had to opportunity to pick the material type of my next object while studying Conservation at Cardiff University, I knew it had to be something photographic. To my delight, and possibly fright, I received a glass plate negative in
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Group Projects: Teamwork makes the dream work

Posted on 23 March 2020 by Caitlin Jenkins

Some objects that arrive at the university lab are too large or complex for a single person to work on, so their responsibility is given to a ‘project manager’, usually a final-year undergraduate or master’s student. The manager devises a treatment strategy to be carried out with the assistance of a small team. Many of
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Frequently Asked Questions in Taxidermy

Posted on 12 March 2020 by Ella Berry

I recently helped out at the National Museum of Wales’ (NMW) After Dark event held on the 19th of February. It was a really fun event, with a great turnout of 852 curious visitors coming to peruse the halls. The art conservators and the natural history conservators collaborated to show how natural history specimens could
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What’s the “tea” about Anoxia Treatments?

Posted on 9 March 2020 by Kate Dieringer

When I started an internship in San Francisco, California, I had no idea what to expect while working in a private conservation studio. One of my first big tasks when I arrived was to help open the large anoxia tent that was set up downstairs. This large, silver tent was roughly twenty feet long by
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World Book Day 2020: Conservation fiction

Posted on 5 March 2020 by Caitlin Jenkins

Today is World Book Day, a worldwide celebration of the joys of books and reading! The theme for 2020 is ‘share a million stories’. I haven’t got quite that many to tell you about, but here are a few conservation-themed suggestions to inspire you to pick up a book today. 1. Inkheart – Cornelia Funke
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Alumni Spotlight: Stephanie Whitehead

Posted on 19 February 2020 by Caitlin Jenkins

Our ‘Alumni Spotlight’ series is back by popular demand! First to be interviewed is former conservation student (and department blog co-manager!) Stephanie Whitehead. What course did you study at Cardiff University? Did you follow it up with any further education or training? I took the MSc Conservation Practice course. I left the course in September
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P.S. We love you

Posted on 14 February 2020 by Caitlin Jenkins

Cardiff students work with a wide variety of objects at the university lab, on placements or other volunteering opportunities. It’s difficult to pick a favourite object – like choosing a favourite child! But in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we’ve asked six students to tell us about a special object that they’ve loved working with.
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Tubey or not tubey, that is the question…

Posted on 5 February 2020 by Caitlin Jenkins

‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’ (Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2) Every object has its own story to tell. Some stories are happy, some are tragic, and some are simply a mystery. In this post, I will share details of an unusual object and reflect on my thoughts about
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If It Isn’t Broken, Don’t Fix It – A Critical Review of “New Kintsugi”, a Modern Take on a Traditional Repair Method.

Posted on 29 January 2020 by Cal James

After finding out about the technique of “Kintsugi”, an ancient Japanese technique of repairing ceramics with lacquer and gold powder, I was intrigued. After some further research, including reading Shan-Ying Chen’s previous blog post on the technique from November, I knew I wanted to learn more and at some point try the technique out for
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Mask on, Mask off: Masking Films from X-radiation

Posted on 8 January 2020 by Amber Bhatty

So, I spent an hour and forty minutes X-raying my objects and developing the films. When they were finally dry, I laid them on the lightbox to see them for the first time; I had never X-rayed or developed films before so at first glance I was quite pleased with the results until… “wait, what
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